


Ms. Accords Students Are Really Weird

by CherryBerryKomainu



Category: Puyo Puyo (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Animal Death, Comedy, Crushes, Drama, F/M, Family, Fluff, Gore, Half Human AU, Insects, Kinda?, Magic, Main cast are teens, Monsters, Monsters talking about eating humans sometimes, OCs as minor and major characters, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Secrets, Slice of Life, We’ll get a plot going eventually, Yôkai, half cannibalism mentioned, headcanons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:48:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28018743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CherryBerryKomainu/pseuds/CherryBerryKomainu
Summary: The students of Ms. Accords class share a secret, problem is, none of them know that, so they waste their time hiding it from each other.An AU where Amitie, Sig, Lidelle, Raffina, and Klug are half human half monster and believe the others to be fully human.
Relationships: Amitie/Sig (Puyo Puyo)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 32





	1. Amitie Agnak And The Downpour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amitie faces an intimidating obstacle on her way home from school.

Welp, this was it, her dreams of becoming a magician were over, as was her life. This was the end of the line, she should’ve written her will when she got up this morning, oh if only she knew today was her last day on earth-

“Ami… Are you okay?” Sig poked his best friend’s shoulder, making her yelp and drop her umbrella. 

“Gah!” Amitie clutched her chest, her thoughts abandoned. “Jeez Sig, you scared me!” She reached down to grab her umbrella. “And uh… I’m fine!” 

“You’ve been standing the stillest I’ve ever seen you with a look of horror in your eyes for the past few minutes.” Sig countered, though he himself was now looking past the school’s doors, trying to find whatever had terrified his friend so much on this rainy day.

“I’m just thinking about how much of a pain it’s gonna be to get back home today…” Amitie replied, smiling tiredly. This wasn’t a complete lie, Amitie lived on the edge of town in a nice little house with her uncle on a hill surrounded by forest, it was rather rural, a dirt path, no signs, and while Amitie loved the space… she didn’t like the time it took to get from her home to literally anywhere else in town. Especially when it rained, the path became muddy, the angle at which she walked up the hill would render her umbrella useless, as if the rain wasn’t already bad enough on its own. Plus it was autumn, so the current downpour consisted of freezing cold water. “Maybe if I wait it’ll stop…”

“Forecast said it’s going to be like this till tomorrow morning.” Sig said, making Amitie groan in defeat. He felt bad for her, Amitie and water just didn’t seem to get along, heck sometimes he wondered if she was aquaphobic. “I could walk you home?”

Amitie shook her head, appearing panicked slightly. “No, no! There’s no need for that! I’m gonna get wet no matter what, I don’t want you to get drenched as well!” 

“Actually I’ve been… practicing with my magic.” Sig paused in his sentence, thinking for a moment. “I was reading about spiders and stuff and well… I got inspired and figured out how to do a spell that creates this cone of magic around you that’ll keep water from touching you.”

“R-really?” Amitie’s eyes shined, she looked at Sig as though he was her personal saviour. “That’s amazing!”

“Thanks…” Sig scratched his cheek slightly. “I can only cast it on myself and whatever I’m holding so… in order to use it on you we’d have to hold hands, hence why I’d have to walk you home.”

The blonde felt heat rise to her cheeks, how close exactly would they need to be for this to work…? She didn’t want to make Sig uncomfortable but she did want to get home safely and also she did want to hold his hand. “If… if it’s not a problem.”

“Not at all.” Sig said, a little too quickly for his liking. “I mean, what are friends for?”

Oh that hurt, that hurt really bad. Amitie swallowed her pain though and smiled. “Yeah, thanks Sig! So uh… ready when you are.” She held out her hand for him to take, and was extremely pleased to realize that from the positioning she was standing next to Sig, it was his red clawed hand that grabbed hers. 

Sig used his other hand to draw a circle above them with a finger, and Amitie could feel the essence of magic weaving together to form the spell. “Ready.” Sig offered a small smile that made Amitie’s heart squeeze.

Amitie tried to keep her eyes in front of her as they walked, and her thoughts clear, but it was a little hard when she was holding Sig’s hand, especially his red one. It was so warm compared to the rest of him, it made Amitie want to lean against Sig and absorb his body heat, but that would be incredibly weird for a friend to do, so she pushed the thought out of her mind and instead focused on thinking of ways to ensure this situation wouldn’t happen again, just in case Sig wasn’t around.

She couldn’t exactly ask Sig to teach her the spell he was using, their magic was far too different, so attempting to do a spell made specifically using Sig’s type of magic with her own would only end in failure. And normally she made sure to check the weather before going out, so she could be prepared, perhaps she could carry a few emergency scrolls of water resistance? Or some potions? No, not potions, there was a big chance they wouldn’t work. 

“How come you don’t like water?” Sig found himself asking.

“Oh I don’t dislike water, I just… I grew up in a place that didn’t have so much of it, I don’t know how to swim and when it rains back home, it’s never anything close to being this bad.” Amitie explained as best she could. She felt bad for sprinkling in some half truths, as she did know how to swim, just not in water. “If it’s warm I like it, there’s lots of natural hot springs where I’m from, so as long as I’m not fully submerged I’m fine with it.”

“Oh.” Sig seemed a little surprised. “I thought it was a fire magic thing.”

… Well he wasn’t wrong about that, just wrong in what exact type of fire magic he was talking about.

“Well, no one on my dad’s side likes water either.” Amitie chuckled. “So I guess I get it from him.”

“...You have parents?” 

Amitie gave Sig an amused look. “Of course I do?”

“I thought Sasha…” 

“Sasha’s my uncle on my fathers side, silly.” Amitie explained. “My parents are pretty busy and we live pretty far from Primp Town, so when I enrolled here my uncle offered to watch over me, he had been looking for a chance to finally settle down.”

“Ah.” To most, Sig’s simple noise of understanding would be just that, but Amitie could hear the hidden curiosity. 

“My mom is a magician, and my dad is…” Amitie struggled to find a believable lie that wasn’t totally a lie. “I’m not sure actually, he never really talked about his job to me, but I guess it’s one of those jobs that keeps him in one place. Which is nice, mom sometimes had to leave for business but dad was always at home or at least close by.”

“So you’re following your mom’s footsteps?” Sig asked.

Amitie nodded enthusiastically. “She’s my role model! She’s always going on all these amazing adventures and helping people out, I’m gonna be just like her one day!”

“That’s cool.” 

“What about you?”

Sig paused, confused by Amitie’s question. 

“What’s your family like?” She clarified.

“Oh…” Sig thought for a moment, long enough for Amitie to worry she had overstepped his boundaries. “I’ve got a mom and eight sisters.”

“Eight?!” Sig always struck her as an only child.

“Yeah, we’re nonuplets, we were born at the same time.” Sig explained. “My dad passed away before we were born, but it doesn’t really bother me. My mom and sisters are more than enough for me.” He gave Amitie a smile.

“What are they like?” Amitie found herself asking.

“They’re…” Sig struggled to find the words. “Intense? I guess? I’m kind of the odd one out, my sisters are all loud and full of personality while I’m… you know…”

“Quiet but still full of personality?” Amitie gave Sig a look that said ‘You are not going to put yourself down on my watch.’

“...Yeah, sometimes they can be too much, but I love them all and they love me too, mom’s really supportive and open.” Sig found himself smiling as he recalled his family. “I get along best with my sister Yoko, she kind of shares the same interests as me but with marine life, specifically crabs, shrimp, and lobsters, or as she likes the call them ‘the insects of the sea.’”

“Aww, that’s so sweet!” Amitie cooed. “I’d love to hear about them more if you ever wanna talk about them, I don’t have any siblings of my own so I guess I’m pretty curious.”

“Well, Natsuko’s visiting next week, I don’t mind setting up a meeting between you too then.” 

“Are you sure? I don’t wanna keep you two from each other.”

“It’s fine, she’d love to meet you, heck all my sisters AND my mother would as well.” Sig took a moment to realize how exactly what he said sounded like. “They-they’re always looking out for me and wanna make sure I’m making friends and stuff while away from the nest.”

“That’s sweet of them, but don’t you visit for the holidays?” Amitie asked.

“They leave pretty far away, the only time I have time to go home is during summer…” Sig explained. “You’re the same right?” Amitie nodded.

“I wish my parents would visit every now and then, I’m kinda jealous of you Sig.” Amitie sighed. 

“Oh, my mother’s never been here, she’s got a job that keeps her close to home, just like your dad I guess.”

“Yeah… just like my dad.” Amitie did her best to sound unbothered, but honestly? She highly doubted her father and Sig’s mother were anything alike.

“Amitie!” Sasha ran down the hill, using fire to evaporate the rain around him before it could hit him. “Oh my goodness I was so worried! What were you thinking going to school without a raincoat or anything on a day like today.” The man worried. 

“Sorry, Sasha, I didn’t mean to forget, you don’t have to worry though, Sig helped me out!”  
Amitie gestured to her friend. “He’s got this really cool spell that repels water, but it only works on him or anything he’s touching so he had to cast it on himself and then hold my hand to help me get home.”

“I see…” Sasha narrowed his eyes slightly once he saw the two were holding hands. “Thank you kindly Sig, but I’ve got it handled from here, you should get home before you run out of magic and catch a cold!” He said with a smile as he carefully grabbed Amitie by the shoulder and got her under range of his own anti rain spell. “I really owe you!”

“Don’t mention it, Amitie’s my friend, of course I’d help her if I could.” Sig seemed to either not notice Sasha’s glare or was simply pretending to ignore it. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Ami?”

“You bet! Bye Sig!” Amitie smiled and waved her friend off.

———

“What were you thinking?!” Sasha scolded once the two got inside the house, his draconic features forming as he chewed his niece out. “You shouldn’t have even risked that! What if the spell didn’t work, or what if there was a mistake?!” The dragon began to pace.

“Sig’s really good with magic!” Amitie argued. “I trust him!”

“Next time something like this happens, you stay at school until I come to get you, do you understand?” Sasha crossed his arms.

Amitie didn’t answer, just averted her eyes and scowled. “You’re acting like dad…” She muttered.

“I am not- Amitie look at you! You’re showing! If Sig had walked you all the way home he would’ve noticed!”

Amitie gasped and ran to find the nearest mirror, surely Sasha was over exaggerating right?

Her hair was dripping, now a more orange color than blonde, her pupils had turned to slits, and parts of her skin had melted away to reveal smooth fiery scales, when Amitie carefully removed a shoe, she found that her sock had been burned through, as now a dripping clawed dragon like foot held her up, her leg was bubbling as her human form gave way to her Lavathan form, the rain and mud cooling the heat of her lava, she didn’t even realize how sluggish she was until she saw her movements in the mirror. 

Sasha stepped behind her with a sigh and a towel, he wiped away the melting skin from Amitie’s face, revealing her scaled face and allowing the lava she was naturally covered in to run freely. “Young lady, I hope you understand you won’t be leaving this house tomorrow.”

Amitie sighed as she wiped away more melted skin, as if it was paint, from her face. “I know…”

“You go upstairs and clean off the rest of your human form, I’ll get a fire ready for you.” Her uncle patted her on the shoulder. “Coal or charcoal?”

“Coal please, I’ve been feeling homesick lately…” the girl replied.

“Why didn’t you say so? We can arrange a trip home next time school gives you a break.” Sasha smiled. “Your father would be overjoyed to see his little princess again!”

“No, I’m good, I don’t feel like getting into another fight with him about men.” Amitie crossed her arms, pouting somewhat childishly. Sasha paused for a moment.

“You do know we’re going to have to talk about your friend, yes?” He finally said, making Amitie groan. “Don’t be like that! I’m not blind dear!”

“It’s just a crush and-it’s not like he likes me back!” Amitie snapped, pulling at her beanie in an effort to hide her face. “He only held my hand to make the spell work!”

“Amitie…”

“I don’t want to talk about it, okay?!” The normally cheerful girl snapped. “And don’t tell dad, Sig’s a really good friend and he means a lot to me… I don’t want dad to try anything.”

Sasha sighed, giving his niece a sympathetic look. “Alright my dear, I promise I won’t say anything next time I bring him up to speed. Now run along, you’ve made enough of a mess as is.”

“Yeah, thanks Sasha…” Amitie said as she made her way upstairs to wash off the rest of her disguise.

———

Amitie Agnak, half Human half Lavathan (Lava Leviathan). When a Lavathan encounters large amounts of water, they will begin to cool rapidly, this leads to sluggish movements, a hard time thinking logically, and prevents these creatures from producing the lava that protects them, the longer they spend in this state, the more they risk the chance of getting sick. Half human half Lavathan’s may not risk sickness as easily as a full blooded Lavathan, but large amounts of water will prevent them from keeping their human form together, as it is a magic that covered their true form, that of a humanoid Lavathan.

Half Human half Lavathan’s do not occur naturally, as neither human or Lavathan can shapeshift naturally, thus making it so the only way for them to have a biologically child is through magic rituals, and Humans and Lavathan’s tend to be at odds due to the Lavathan’s more monstrous nature.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! It’s been a while! But I’ve finally got my motivation back! I know this isn’t Scarlet Witch, but I’m very happy to introduce this new AU of mine to you all! Buckle up, we’re in for a long ride.


	2. Sig and Natsuko

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natsuko finally visits her brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for: animal death and mention of eating humans

A hand came down atop Sig’s head and pushed. “Stop growing, or I’m going to tell mom on you.” A perky girl with blue hair in a pixie cut huffed as she stood on her toes in order to reach the top of her brother's head. Her hazel eyes giving him a critical look, it really didn’t suit her, she was dressed like a modern day pink fairy. Sig smiled slightly, tempted to stand on his toes just to spite his sister.

“You’re going to have to speak a bit louder, I can’t hear you from up here.” Sig said, causing Natsuko to hiss and use both hands to press down on his head. 

“How did you even GET this tall, you barely eat!” His sister relented and looked him over. “Or at least you don’t eat much at home…”

“....” Sig frowned and scratched his cheek lightly, averting his eyes from Natsuko. “There’s a better selection of… vegetarian options here.” He said. 

“Please don’t tell me you’ve been living off of takeout, you know Akuma offered to take care of you on his own accord.” She reminded him.

“I haven’t, really I’ve been eating healthy, learning how to cook and all that…” Sig still seemed bothered. “It’s just… Akuma weirds me out, okay?” He whispered.

Natsuko frowned, confused but still concerned. “Can we talk about this later?” She asked, to which Sig nodded, making her smile. “Good, now how about you show me what Primp Town has to offer?”

———

“So, Tetris is real?” 

“How do you know about Tetris?”

“Yoko, she lives in the non-magic world, you know this, Sig.” Natsuko gave her brother a look as they sat outside a cafe, waiting for their orders to arrive.

“Ringo didn’t know what Tetris was and she’s from the same place.” Sig pointed out, forgetting his retelling of the first Puyo Tetris interaction in favour of this weird mystery. 

“That’s… weird.” Natsuko tapped her fingers on the table. “Ringo is Japanese, is she not? Tetris originated from Japan if I remember correctly. Oh! Speaking of Ringo…”

Sig hoped the expression on his face was one of confidence, in all honesty he was still unsure about THAT thing. “We’re… friends, we aren’t super close but we get along.” He explained. “I’m not really that bothered, most of the time. But…”

“When the apple comes out it’s two steps back?”

Sig sighed. “Yeah, it’s better than a complete downwards spiral, but that doesn’t change how hard it is to hide my reaction.” No matter what he came up with, any excuse for why seeing an apple, of all things, made him feel nauseous and unsettled, just sounded so very stupid. It was best to bottle up his feelings and escape the situation, in his opinion.

“Well, no one’s caught on yet.” Natsuko gave her brother a small but encouraging smile. “So I’d say you’re great, plus, it’s only apples by themselves that sets you off, yeah? You told me last summer about the candy apples you had at that one festival. And those were like, just apples covered in sugar.”

“But isn’t that silly?” Sig asked. “I mean, I still taste the apple when I take a bite, I still know it’s an apple, it’s not like an apple pie where I don’t see a full apple…”

Natsuko paused for a moment, one in order to thank the server who arrived with the food, and two so she could put her thoughts together in a way that Sig could understand.

“You wanna know what I think?” She finally asked. Sig simply nodded. “I think it’s not silly at all, I’m no expert on the mind, but from what I’ve seen and what you’ve told me, you tie that entire ordeal to the image of a normal apple, not the taste or the smell, just, just the sight. After all, it was an apple that started everything, it only makes sense for it to turn into a trigger.”

Sig didn’t look too happy to hear that, but he also knew Natsuko was right. “... If only my emotions would listen…” He said sadly.

“Emotions aren’t logical, you can’t expect them to be.” Natsuko reminded him. “I know that bothers you, but sometimes you really just need to accept that you can’t always be in control of how you feel.” She put a hand over his as a comforting gesture. “Not saying you need to accept that right this second, and I know you’re trying, but I know you also forget this sometimes.”

Sig took a deep breath, offering a smile. “Yeah, you’re right, it’s just… frustrating. It seems whenever I think I’ve figured myself out something new comes and sucker punches me.” He explained.

“That’s life, and hey, you’re only 14, just like me, we both still have a lot to figure out about ourselves.” Sometimes Natsuko seemed way older than she really was, in truth a lot of Sig’s sisters did. For all they assured him that they too were still growing, Sig always felt like he was the one trailing behind, and sometimes that made it hard for him to really accept the advice they gave him.

“Thanks, I’ll try to remember that.” He said.

“That’s all I ask, ready to go bug hunting?” 

“Actually…” Sig gathered himself before he spoke again. “I have a friend I want you to meet.” He braced himself.

“Really…?” Natsuko’s eyes widened. “Is it this Amitie girl you’ve told us about?~”

“Y-yeah, we kinda ended up talking about our families last week and well, the topic of you coming over came up and she wanted to meet you.” Sig explained. “It’s nothing special, Amitie’s well… you know how she is, kinda.”

“Hey, I’m not Minako.” His sister smiled. “I’m not gonna do anything to embarrass you, and I’m all for meeting your friends, not to mention that from what you’ve told me, she seems like someone I wouldn’t mind befriending. So yes, I’m totally up for having a little meetup before we go bug catching.”

———

The second Amitie came within sight of Sig and Natsuko, his sister began to radiate a confused, on edge aura. She didn’t show it visibly, but Sig could feel her cautious unease, which made him shoot her a quick, questioning glance.

“You must be Amitie.” Natsuko ignored him and smiled kindly to Amitie, though Sig noticed she kept her hands firmly tucked behind her back. “I’m Natsuko, one of Sig’s sisters! It’s nice to meet you!”

Amitie, bless her soul, didn’t catch onto the unease and simply smiled back. “It’s nice to meet you too! I hope I’m not getting in the way of your plans today.”

“Not at all, I’ve been looking forward to finally meeting you face to face!” Natsuko reassured. “Sig talks about you a lot.”

“You all pester me if I don’t tell you every detail of my school year.” Sig muttered, causing Natsuko to give him a light shove.

“Hey, you pester us just the same about what we all do over the year.” She reminded him. “No need to get all defensive.”

Amitie seemed a little confused by the interaction, though that was probably because of the fact that she was unused to how siblings acted around each other. “I feel a little bad…” She said with a small smile. “You seem to know so much about me, but I… don’t really know much about you.”

“That’s why I’m meeting you, gotta fix that little dilemma up, yeah?” Natsuko waved away the girls concerns, and soon enough they began to talk casually, all three of them.

———

As they began to explore the forest, the two siblings could tell that the other had questions for them, and they waited to see who would break the silence first.

“Is his acceptance what bothers you?” Natsuko decided to speak first, she was never one to let a situation stay odd in a bad way. “Akuma, I mean.”

“Yeah, I just…” Sig took a deep breath. “When I came here I expected someone stern who would watch my every step at first in order to make sure I stayed in line, after all, this is the real world, it’s different from home.” He explained. “Not saying I wanted to live with someone who didn’t trust me, but Akuma just, didn’t seem to care? And I can’t tell if it’s because he trusts me or because he thinks, I don’t know, weak or something.”

“Mom made sure Akuma knew exactly what to expect when he took you in.” Natsuko explained. “You really think she would even think about placing you under the care of someone who would be suspicious of you for something you can’t control?”

“It’s not the lack of suspicion, it’s the acceptance and openness.” Sig countered. “Like, somehow it feels almost offensive, like he thinks this is all a phase I’ll grow out of, and I don’t know how to talk to him about it.”

“You don’t need to plan it out, just tell him what’s bothering you, the same way you talk to us when there’s something wrong.” 

“Easier said than done… what was with you when we met Amitie?” He changed to subject the second he spotted the chance, half paying attention to the bug he was aiming to catch so he could watch his sister’s face.

“I think it’s the fire, you’ve told me she’s pretty good at magic, yeah?” When Natsuko said this Sig nodded. “I don’t know many fire mages, so maybe I just felt threatened by the amount of fire inside her.” She shrugged, unsure. “I mean, how can a teenager hold that much fire within? Isn’t it hard?”

“I never really noticed.” Sig admitted. “I guess it’s because I’m used to it, maybe Amitie just… well she’s been through some stuff, so maybe she just got a boost in power?”

“... Maybe, I could be just on edge, I knew Primp was full of magic, but some of it just seems off to me.” Natsuko sighed. “I don’t know how to explain it, yeah it’s everywhere, but I keep picking up these specific trails, just enough to know something’s different than the norm, but not enough to know exactly what it is.” Natsuko honed in on a silk tent hidden among the branches of a tree. “Hang on, I found the jackpot, do you want me to see if there’s any birds up here?”

“Nah, I found something.” Sig said as one of his arachnid legs revealed itself and shot out at something on the ground, pinning it. 

“‘Kay.” Natsuko let her own extra appendages out, using them to scale the tree and gently remove the silk tent from its spot, she kept her legs close to her body for balance. “What’d you find?” 

Sig’s response was muffled, which made Natsuko roll her eyes and she turned to him once she had the tent in her hands. “Don’t talk with your mouthful.” She said.

Sig didn’t give a verbal response, too busy trying to swallow the snake he caught live without using his hands, meaning his prey was still slithering around and attempting to escape. 

“Mom would give you such a scolding for your lack of manners.” Natsuko commented before popping a tent caterpillar in her mouth, making sure to chew and then swallow. “Seriously all you’re doing is making this way harder than it should be.”

With a jerk and a snap of his fangs, Sig finally made the snake go still before swallowing it whole. “S’more fun this way.” He responded, averting his eyes as to not see his sister chow down on bugs. “Thrill of the hunt and all that.”

“You are SUCH a weirdo.” His sister sighed. “Please tell me you don’t do that with birds.”

“Nah, they make too much sound and I don’t like being pecked and scratched.” The boy winced as he recalled the only time he tried eating a bird live. “Snakes are quieter, and their bites don’t really bother me.”

“You want me to help you look for more?”

Sig shook his head. “One’s enough for me, I’m more accustomed to human food by now.” He explained. “More flavour.”

“Emotions add flavour to human flesh once you know how to extract them.” Natsuko countered.

“You know I can’t taste emotions, plus that’s against my moral compass.” 

“Right, it’d be really weird if you ate what all your friends were.”

“More like disturbing!”

———

Sig Okō, half human half Jorōgumo, Jorōgumo are Yokai that take the form of either beautiful women or giant golden orb-weaver spiders, they feed off of young men. Half Jorōgumo are rare, but not entirely unheard of. Normally they are born female, but every once in a blue moon a male half Jorōgumo is born. Half Jorōgumo have special, magic venom and as a whole have a greater degree of control over their shapeshifting, allowing them to meet in the middle between human and Jorōgumo, they can eat both human food and the typical Jorōgumo prey, but are also known to eat other insects, snakes, and even birds, suggesting a closer connection to a normal spider. Male half Jorōgumo cannot taste nor feed off emotions like their female counterparts, and are also physically different from females, having larger fangs and growing taller.

Half human half Jorōgumo occur when a Jorōgumo has fallen in love with a human man, the emotions shared between the two cause their children to inherit their fathers genetics, as opposed to what happens when a Jorōgumo uses a human man to conceive their young without a shared feeling of affection.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that’s another chapter down, any guesses as to who’ll be next and what half monster they’ll be?


	3. Lidelle and the Visitor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lidelle’s normal routine is interrupted by an unexpected guest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for: Gore, animal death, mention of human death and the eating of humans, and dead things decaying.

Sunshine peeks through the curtains and birds sing their morning song, Lidelle’s sensitive ears twitch and she finds herself forced to consciousness.

She sits u, yawning, feeling not as rested as she usually is, and gets up to get ready for the day, gets breakfast, takes her anxiety medication, her morning protein shake, and her iron supplements, gets dressed, and-

Funny, she doesn’t remember opening her window last night before bed, maybe a strong wind opened it? Lidelle walks over and opens the curtains in front of the window.

A dead bird is nailed to her windowsill, literally nailed there, by its wings, it’s facing upwards, though its eyes have been plucked out.

Lidelle stares at the bird for a few moments, and as she does, she notices there are marks all over the windows, blood, bloody handprints. Lidelle stares at the handprints for a few moments, stepping back, letting the curtains fall back into place, and stares blankly at said curtains for a several minutes.

Suddenly her dorm room is no longer private, she tries to remember if she had locked her window shut last night, but finds she could not remember, the handprints are only on the window, nothing else in the room has such prints, and she can’t smell blood at all with the window closed. 

Yeah, she was going to take a hard pass on breakfast today.

Instead she makes her way to the small kitchen area of her dorm to grab a small garbage bag, a rag, a bucket of water, some pliers, a clothespin, and a pair of rubber gloves, and returns to her room.

She puts the bucket of water down by her window, slipped the gloves on, pinches her nose with the clothespin, puts the rag in the water, and grabs the pliers before she opens her curtains again, and then proceeds to open the unlocked window.

Lidelle makes a face as the stench of blood hits her, even blocking her nose, she can smell it fairly easily, she takes a deep breath and clasps the pliers over one of the two nails pinning the bird.

Man this thing is hammered in hard, she has to plant a foot on the wall below her window in order to find enough force to wrench the nail out. Unfortunately the sudden freeing of the nail catches her off balance and she almost falls, but luckily waving her arms like a maniac actually managed to help her balance. She drops the nail into the garbage bag and pries out the other nail, doing the same thing.

Lidelle takes a moment to catch her breath, and also to look at the sky and realize she is up early, most likely because of the bird song.

‘Well, at least I won’t be late for school today.’ She thinks to herself as she puts the pliers down. ‘Remember what Amitie said, focus on the positives.’ 

Any chance of her attempting to follow her friend’s advice is thrown right out the window when Lidelle picked up the bird. With a sickening squelch the carcass falls apart in her hand, disgusting sludge oozed out as the bones brittle-y snapped and the flesh sloshed off. In response Lidelle simply stares at her gloved hand, thankful that she is still holding the dead bird over her windowsill, as cleaning liquified dead bird out of her carpet would be, quite frankly, an incredible amount of work that would certainly result in her room stinking of decay for the next forever.

Holding her breath, Lidelle manages to get most of the bird into the garbage bag, though not without staining her windowsill, because of course. Of course that would happen.

Today is going to be a long day.

———

Getting ready for school proves to be a difficult task, someone has emptied her backpack and scattered her things around the dorm, Lidelle is just glad she chose to check before she had to rush off for school.

Also her bag has been filled with stinging nettle, meaning she would have to carry her stuff today and travel lightly, as she doesn’t feel like risking being stung by any leftover nettle, she could clean it after school when she had more time.

She finds her pencil case under her bed, and has to push it out and then dump water over it to ruin the paper seals attached just so she could grab it. Luckily there is nothing stuffed in the case besides what she had originally put in it.

Her binder was not tampered with, though it was stuffed into the back of the freezer, thankfully it was only a little chilly to the touch, she tries not to think about how that could be possible.

She uses some magic to collect her needed textbooks from atop her closet’s highest shelf, still refusing to give a single reaction to all this trickery.

And after double checking her lunch and putting a seal on it, Lidelle notices a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye. Quickly she turns around to see that her front door is slightly ajar… and a horrific smell assaults her nose, it stings so badly she drops all her things and her eyes water.

She wants to skip school, to stay home and wait until whoever had put that… /stuff/ around had taken it away, but she can’t. That would just show that she had been beaten, and she refuses to be beaten by stupid tricks and unfair cruelty.

So instead she grabs the plunger from her bathroom, and uses it to gently ease the front door open from a distance, the second she sees a flash of silver fall, Lidelle drops the plunger and jumps back a good few feet, holding her hands to her face as the disgusting liquid spilled all over the ground, the bucket clattering upon impact and rolling around slightly. 

Yeah, she isn’t going to touch that when it is fresh, no way. Lidelle puts the plunger away, grabs her stuff, and takes a running jump over the clear liquid in order to get outside. She promptly turns around and kicks the door shut, her heart beating a little faster than normal from the small adrenaline rush.

/Plop/

A bag falls onto Lidelle’s head, and then onto the ground. It is steaming, and smelled delicious, wasting no time the girl picks up the bag and grabs one of the soft and squishy objects inside.

A steamed meat bun! Lidelle stares at it, drooling a little, it smelled AMAZING and looks heavenly. Lidelle bites into it and is pleased to find that it tastes like pork, if she had to guess it was probably filled with liver meat.

There are about 3 more meat buns in total, so Lidelle wraps the bag up tightly and heads for school in a significantly better mood. So good of a mood in fact, that she chooses to ignore the figure on the roof.

———

Lidelle scans her classroom as she steps in, surprised to see Amitie nowhere in sight, normally the blonde arrived early, if only because she lived the furthest away of the 5 student class. 

This is... admittedly a bit of an issue, Amitie is really one of the few people Lidelle would call a close friend, the other being Tarutaru before he switched schools, and she typically sat beside her as it helped to ease her usual anxiety. Not to say she was hopeless without Amitie, no, but on days like today when her nerves were on edge, Lidelle was hoping Amitie would be able to soothe her.

Lidelle sits next to Klug, as he is the only other person in the class right now. He and Amitie typically arrive first, followed by Raffina, and finally Lidelle and Sig. 

“You’re here early.” Klug comments as Lidelle sits down next to him.

“I accidentally left my window open and the birds woke me up…” Lidelle explains as she gets ready for first period. “Do… do you know what’s up with Amitie?”

Klug shrugs, “It was raining pretty badly yesterday.” He says, and that did kinda explain everything. Everyone in the class apart from Sig knew how easily Amitie got sick in the rain. The day Sig had transferred to the school, Amitie had fallen quite ill from getting lost in the forest during a rainstorm the day before, it took her a whole week to become well enough to return to school.

“Oh, I hope it’s nothing too bad.” Lidelle winces.

“It’s Amitie, she’ll be back before you know… it…” Klug pauses, sniffing the air with a puzzled expression. “That’s… odd.” He mumbles.

“What is?” Lidelle asks.

“N-nothing nothing-“ Klug’s stomach growls loudly. “.... I smell cooked meat.” He admits in embarrassment.

Lidelle wordlessly puts one of her meat buns on the boys desk. “I’ve got extra, so I don’t mind sharing.”

“... You don’t mind?” Klug stares at the meat bun, going so far as to close his book and put it in his lap.

“Not at all.” Lidelle smiles. “I was planning on sharing with Amitie anyways.”

“She likes these too?” Klug takes the bun in his hands. “She struck me as more of a sweets person.”

“More like baked goods.” Lidelle corrects. Faintly remembering the time Amitie got brain freeze from a couple licks of an ice cream cone. 

“Huh.” Klug bites into the bun. “Is this liver?” Lidelle nods, and Klug smiles ever so slightly. “You’ve got good taste.”

“Oh! Thanks!” Lidelle brightens up. “That book looks new, what is it about?”

“Magical creatures.” Klug shows her the cover. “Specifically Yokai, Ringo told me that the world she’s from has lots of legends about mythical monsters and offered to let me keep this old book about them.”

“I… see.” Lidelle keeps her ears pointed straight. 

“Given that it’s from Ringo’s world, I’m sure it’s not entirely accurate, but I’m curious to see what it gets right and what it gets wrong.” He explains. 

She almost wants to ask how he knew what was right or wrong, but holds her tongue. 

The possible answers are the same reasons she avoids people like Arle and Schezo, because when it comes to monsters, intelligence and emotional development and other such things vary so wildly, that it’s very easy for a human to get away with killing a monster. It’s practically a job, and look, Lidelle understands that, really, she does, the number of evil monsters outweighs the good ones, by nature many of them are morally wrong. 

But it’s hard to be buddy buddy with someone who could kill your entire family if they met under the wrong circumstances without feeling a nauseating amount of guilt.

Or maybe that’s just Lidelle, maybe it’s just like that for her. That’s a definite possibility, doesn't change the situation however.

Man, how messed up is it that she’s willing and ready to completely give up on a friend the second they express interest in becoming a monster slayer, and Klug hasn’t even said anything like that!

That was life though, it was messy, it was cruel, and it was unfair. You could only be kind once you had carved out a chunk of it like land and claimed it as your own, that’s what her mother always said.

It was pessimistic but Lidelle preferred it to the life advice her father offered.

———  
‘Lidelle yelped as father nipped her ear and shoved her to sit beside her siblings, reminding them to sit in a line. Once satisfied with their placement, father stood in front of them, the giant red leaf tree towering behind him. It was the biggest tree in the forest.

“Long ago, when I was young, the forest we live in was once a barren field, before it was a barren field, it was a peach farm.” Father spoke. “Then humans from a distant village came and burned it down, they did this to weaken the humans that farmed the peaches, because they wanted to take their land. Other things happened, but this was generally considered to be the incident that caused the two villages to go to war, and they warred for several years.

By the time the war came to an end, both of the humans' land had become barren and worthless, they had destroyed what they fought to obtain, and so they chose to fight for honour. They chose this old peach farm as their battle ground, where only a single tree remained. Having nothing to go back to, the humans fought until they died, they became mindless animals, and they soaked the ground in blood and corpses.”

Father walked up to the tree and scraped at the ground, after a while he pulled out a dirty old bone.

“When a tree is rooted in a place soaked with the blood of humans, it becomes a Jubokko, a tree that feeds off of blood. When a human comes near it, their long branches snatch the human up and drain them of their blood, letting the body be devoured by wildlife and letting the bones fall to the ground.” He explained. “Humans will say that Jubokko only appear on fields of war, barren places. Now, what do you see around you children?”

“The forest!” Lidelle and her siblings said, though she spoke with a softer voice. Father nodded and smiled.

“Yes, a big beautiful forest, one that humans dare not enter, our home. Here we are safe from humans, for the Jubokko has spread its roots all over the forest, and preys on any human that enters this place without permission. But this is rare, this forest is rare, because humans cannot accept nature. When they find a Jubokko, they destroy it, because it lives off of blood. Typically human blood, and so wonderful safe havens like our forest do not get the chance to grow under the influence and protection of a Jubokko.

However, the Jubokko does not care for us, should it ever hunger, it will not hesitate to grab us and drink our blood, so always watch for its roots when you wander.” Father bapped Rita away from the root she was about to touch, giving her a warning snarl. “There are ways to ensure this does not happen, and those ways are feeding the Jubokko, as long as it is full, it will not harm us.”

“Is that why we always have to offer some of our catches to the Jubokko?” Lidelle asked.

“Indeed it is, very good Lidelle.” Father gave an approving nod. “Now, I want all of you to treat life like a Jubokko, and to act like Jubokko to those outside of the family. The world runs on favours, nothing comes free, and at the end of the day everyone will put their own life before anyone else’s. It will gobble you up if you allow it to, so always, always, ensure you can repay a favour and that if someone fails to repay you, you take whatever you want from them.”’

———  
To this day Lidelle still finds she couldn’t understand what her father meant, in her opinion life is nowhere near as cut throat as he had made it out to be. 

So, her dad really owes her for all the anxiety and trust issues he instilled in her and mom was the best person to seek advice from as long as Lidelle knew that she was asking for advice from a dark pessimist.

Beside her, Klug snickers, and Lidelle finds herself alert again.

Raffina has arrived, as has Sig, who is looking around the classroom as though he is a lost puppy. It is adorably sad, and Lidelle gives Klug a disappointed look for laughing. She honestly can’t understand why Klug seemed to… well not hate, but dislike Sig so much, it was like the blue haired boys' very presence bothered him. Maybe that was it, maybe it was just that irrational of a reason.

“Don’t laugh or I’m telling Raffina.” She threatens him. 

“Oh come on, it’s funny! To think without Amitie of all people, Sig’s gone all lost puppy on us.” Klug defends, though he can tell from the look Lidelle shoots him that he is not going to convince her at all.

“Hey Sig, you okay?” Lidelle asks, snapping the boy out of it. He nods and sits down, claws tapping on his desk. Raffina decides to sit down at the desk next to Sig, purely because she happens to want to sit in that specific chair today, nothing else. 

Ms. Accord comes in, informs them that Amitie is sick today so she won’t be here, and class begins as normal.

At least Lidelle thinks it’s normal, she’s somewhat distracted by the flashes of movement just under the classroom door, something running back and forth without making sounds. Sometimes she sees movement from the doors window, which makes her tense up every time because they should NOT be that big. She nearly screams when she subtly looks at the door again and finds an eye staring right at her from the space between the door and the floor. It doesn’t blink, and when Lidelle turns to check if it’s moved, it looks bloodshot, as if the owner hadn’t blinked.

The meat bun… it was definitely filled with pork, right? That’s how it tasted.

Ms. Accord doesn’t call on her to answer questions, it’s both a curse and a blessing.

———  
She catches them on the roof during lunch, anger and fear drive her to stalk it down, knowing her friends are probably worried about her, but she’ll deal with that later.

The being on the roof is neither one of her sisters nor is it one of her brothers, this fox is twice her size with three tails, a smug and sinister smirk on his face, and slanted blue eyes. He regards Lidelle with a mocking chuckle. He is cream in color, red markings along his body.

“Greetings little sister.” He says, smiling wider when Lidelle gives him a confused look. “Father is full grown, do you really think you and your siblings were his first litter? Sorry to break it to you, but father didn’t wait for all nine of his tails to grow to finally find the one, your mother, like my mother, is just one of the many mates he’s had over the years.”

That… hurts, it shouldn’t, it really shouldn’t, after all it’s silly to think that her dad never sought out a partner before her mother, but knowing that she has half siblings running around, lots of them from how this one speaks, Lidelle feels betrayed.

“How do you know who I am?” She asks. “And why are you here, messing with me?”

“Because you’re the first.” Her half brother says.

“Huh?”

“I’m Raddle, by the way.” Raddle circles around Lidelle, every action he makes tells Lidelle that he is amused by her existence, in the way one would be amused with a particularly helpless and stupid animal. She bristles, ears pressing flat to her head. Raddle makes a mocking ‘oooo’ sound.

“So scary~” He chirps. “Lidelle is scary! How very odd, can you not even be odd correctly, little sister?” He asks, every word he says grates on her nerves.

“It’s surprising, you know, that after all these years, you’re the first kit father’s ever had that decided to be good. You’re one of a kind, Lidelle.” She’s… the first? The first and only child in the family to deny the lifestyle of her parents? That’s, that can’t be right…

“Chin up!” Raddle forces Lidelle to look at him by placing a paw under her chin and pushing up. “You’re doing well so far! You’ll never reach your goal if this is what breaks you!”

“I’m just, surprised is all.” Lidelle lies, shoving Raddle’s paw away. “That I’m the only member of the family who isn’t evil.”

“We’re not all evil, we’re just not good, there’s a difference! I’d like to say that I’m more of a troublemaker personally. Really Lidelle, I’m trying to relate to you here, tell you you aren’t alone! I was in your position once!” Raddle prattles on. “My mother was a Kumiho, and I was the only kit in the three litters she and father had that didn’t take to the whole ‘marry a human and eat their liver’ thing! I mean really, murder ruins the impact of messing with humans! Takes away all the fun!”

“We… are nothing alike.” Lidelle hisses, backing away from her half brother. “I don’t want your help, leave me alone, and stay out of my town, or I’m telling father!”

Raddle finches, as though struck with a red hot iron. “L-let’s not be hasty now!” He pleads. “I even gave you a nice little gift! Meat buns filled with pig liver! Y-you enjoyed that quite a bit, didn’t you?”

Lidelle growls, shuffling and fidgeting in order to keep herself shifted. “My siblings are allowed to come here and mess with me, my FULL siblings, the ones I grew up with, not a random Kitsune who has no actual proof that we share a father. I don’t want anything to do with you, or any other surprise relatives I may have, so leave, or I’ll make you.”

“... You’ll make me? You haven’t even gotten your second tail!” Raddle loses his fear as he laughs. 

The next moment, Lidelle is on the ground, jaws clamped over her neck as paws press her down. Raddle keeps her there for a few minutes, before he backs off, not without using a paw to make Lidelle’s head smack onto the ground.

“Stick to playing tattletale, it’ll work out better for you, kit.” Raddle snarls. “You may be used to being able to bring the beat down on your litter mates, but the rest of us, we’re a lot stronger, so next time keep your mouth shut when you feel territorial, unless you want to end up all over the roof.”

It takes the entire lunch hour for Lidelle to calm down enough to return to her friends without them being able to tell she’s had a breakdown.

———  
Lidelle Vulpes, half human, half Kitsune. Kitsune are fox Yokai known for either being the messengers of the gods or for being horrible little tricksters or agents of evil, Kumiho are similar to Kitsune, with both being foxes with multiple tails, though Kumiho have a darker rep, transforming into humans in order to marry them and eat their livers. Lidelle’s father is half Kitsune and half Kumiho, so all of his children have a natural taste for liver.

Half human half Kitsune are relatively similar to full blooded Kitsune, though they tend to either have a harder or easier time shapeshifting. Lidelle is the only member of her family not actively aligned with darkness or evil, her goal is to one day become a divine being, a true messenger of the gods.


End file.
